Make an End of Year Slideshow with PhotoStage

Make an End of Year Slideshow with PhotoStage

What better way to wrap up the year than with an end-of-year photo slideshow filled with all of your favorite memories? You can easily put together a slideshow with all of the great pictures you took this past year and add your favorite songs to go along with it. With a simple and easy-to-use slideshow-making software such as PhotoStage Slideshow Software, you can quickly create your own year-end slideshow to save and share for years to come.

Download PhotoStage for Windows

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Slideshow Wizard

The easiest way to make an end-of-year slideshow in PhotoStage is by using the Slideshow Wizard. Open PhotoStage Slideshow Software on your PC or Mac and click on the Wizard icon, located in the main toolbar. This will launch the Quick Create Slideshow window where you can get assemble your pictures, audio, theme, and transitions and get them all ready for your slideshow in one place.

Locate Your Images

Click on the Browse button to locate the images you would like to use in your slideshow. This will open the file finder window where you can select the folder that contains the images you would like to use. Select the folder that contains the images you want in your slideshow and in the next step, we will select the actual images.

Select Your Photos

Next, you can choose to either use all of the images in your selected folder or pick the images you want in your slideshow one at a time. Choose the option from the dropdown that says Use Selected to pick individual photos out from your folder. Click the button that says Select to open the folder and choose which photos you want to use in your slideshow. You can click the button that says Select All and then hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while clicking on the photos you don't want. You can also click the option that says Select None and hold down Ctrl on your keyboard and select the images you do want. When you are finished selecting images, click OK.

Add Audio

Now it's time to add some audio to your slideshow. Maybe it's that song you had playing on repeat all year long or maybe it's a song that gets you pumped for the year to come. Either way, a good song is a great way to make a photo slideshow come to life. Click on the drop-down menu next to the word Sound and choose from where you would like to import your audio file. If the audio file is on your computer, you can select this option, locate your sound file and click Open. You can also find a number of great sound files in the NCH Sound Library.

Select a Theme

PhotoStage allows you to select a theme for your slideshow that will act as a background behind your images. This is useful when your photos are not all the same size or when you have a mix of landscape and portrait photos as we all often do. Choose a theme option from the drop-down menu to launch the Background Theme window. You can also add Intro and Outro Title Text to your slideshow by clicking in the title text boxes and typing in the Text Overlay window that appears.

Add Transitions

Finally, select the type of transitions you would like to have between the photos in your slideshow from the transitions drop-down menu. You can set their duration in the box beneath the menu. If you would like to use a variety of transitions, check the box that says Randomize Transition Type, and different transitions will appear between your photos in random order.

Create Slideshow

Once you have made all of your selections using the PhotoStage Wizard, click Create to open your slideshow into the main program. You can rearrange the order of your images by simply clicking on the image in the timeline at the bottom of the program and dragging it to any position you would like. You can also click on the transition box between any two clips to change and adjust the transitions. Clicking on the number in the box will allow you to adjust the duration of the transition while clicking on the image icon in the box will display the other transitions available under the transition tab.

Add Text

You can add text to any image/slide in your slideshow by simply clicking on that image in the timeline and then clicking on the Text tab on the top left-hand side of the program. Select the type of text you would like to use, such as Text Overlay, and then click and type in the text box that appears as a new layer beneath the Applied Effects section.

Add Effects

You can add effects to any of the photos in your slideshow by selecting a photo from your timeline and then clicking on the Effects tab to select an effect to apply to that photo. Effects will appear as layers underneath the applied effects section and can be layered on top of each other to create unique and exciting effects of your own.

Export Slideshow

When you are finished making the final adjustments to your slideshow and you are ready to export, simply click on the Export icon located in the main menu at the top of the program. You can select from a variety of export and sharing options such as burning to a DVD, saving to your computer and even uploading directly to YouTube.

Save to Your Computer

To save your slideshow movie to your computer, simply choose the Video File option and use the Video Output Setup window to choose an output file type, destination, and resolution. Name your slideshow whatever you would like then click Create to start the export process. Your year-end slideshow movie will appear in your chosen output destination and you can now share your year with whoever you would like, however you would like. Now you can start off your New Year with the resolution to make more slideshows!

Download PhotoStage for Windows

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Happy New Year from all of us here at NCH Software!

Create a Video from Photos with Slideshow Software

Create a Video from Photos with PhotoStage Slideshow Maker

Create a Video from Photos

From baby's first steps to graduation tears of joy, family vacations, weddings, and honeymoons, we take and save photos of our memories every day. At times it may seem impossible to organize and share such a wealth of memories with your friends and family. Social media is a great way to share everyday photos, however, you may want to create a more polished production for your most cherished memories. To easily organize and share your photos, you can create a video slideshow from photos.

How to Make a Video from Photos

Creating videos from your photos of specific events can be a beautiful and meaningful way to organize your photos. Create annual DVDs to chronicle family ski trips, reunions, and summer beach getaways. Make a slideshow to organize all of the fabulous photos from your European vacation in one place. Create the perfect gift to send to grandma and grandpa, or a cherished memento DVD for your children to look back on as they grow up. For newlyweds, a wedding slideshow is a popular way to showcase your favorite photos from your big day. Creating a video from photos is a quick and easy process when using slideshow software, such as PhotoStage SlideShow Maker.

Download PhotoStage for Windows

You can create a slideshow video from photos in three easy steps:

1. Select your favorite photos
2. Arrange photos in the slideshow
3. Add Music, Effects, Animations, or Text

Step 1: Select your Favorite Photos

To select the photos that you would like to add to your slideshow, begin by importing the media that you would like to use in PhotoStage. To do this, click on the "Add Media" button in the top menu bar and select the photos that you would like to use from your computer. Alternatively, you can use the "Add Photos", "Add Video" and "Add Audio" buttons to upload media to your slideshow. Photos, videos, and music will be added to the "Media" tab.

If you are using lots of photos in your video, you may want to check to make sure that all of the images which were imported into the Media tab have been included in your video. When a photo has been added to the slideshow, a green checkmark will appear over the photo in the Media tab.

Step 2: Arrange Photos in Video

To add photos to your slideshow, drag and drop photos from the Media bin onto the Slideshow at the bottom of the program window where it says "Drag your image and video clips here". You can also drag and drop photos to re-arrange them in your slideshow video.

Adjust Photo Duration

To adjust the duration of a photo in the slideshow, click on the time icon at the bottom of a slide, or double click on the slide. In the slide adjustment window, you can set the photo duration in seconds. You can also change the duration of all of the slides in your slideshow by checking the box to "Apply to all".

Select a Photo Transition

You can easily change the transition animations that appear between the photos in your video slideshow. Transitions can fade from one photo to the next in a variety of exciting ways.

Transitions can help make your video of photos more interesting. To change a transition, click on the icon that appears between your photos in the slideshow, and select your desired transition from the 'Transitions' tab.

Step 3: Add Music, Effects, Animation, or Text to Perfect Your Video

Edit Your Photos

PhotoStage slideshow software includes a number of photo editing effects that can quickly crop, adjust, brighten, and rotate the photos that you add to your video slideshow. To edit a photo, click to select the photo in the slideshow, and then click on the "Edit" tab. 

Bring your Photos to Life with Effects and Animations

PhotoStage slideshow creator also includes a variety of effects that can be applied to photos.

Add a touch of nostalgia with a sepia filter, add a border, or transform your photos into oil paintings with these easy-to-apply effects. 

For more advanced effects, you can add animations to your photos. Animations can be added to photos in your slideshow to create movement, such as a zoom effect. Animations can be applied to photos individually, or you can add multiple animations to a single photo to combine effects. 

Add a Title Slide

You can also add a blank slide to your video slideshow in order to create a title slide. To add a blank slide, click on the "Add Blank" button in the top menu bar. 

Select the color slide that you would like to add, and then drag and drop the blank slide to your desired location in the slideshow.

 Add Text to Photos

To add text to a photo in your slideshow video, select the photo that you would like to edit and click on the "Text" tab. There are several text options to choose from. 

Click to select the text option that you would like to add to your photo, and then adjust the font, alignment, size, and text color in the Applied Effects area of the Text tab.

Add Music to Your Slideshow

Music is a quick and easy way to add emotion and ambiance to any video. To create a slideshow with music, you can upload music from your computer, or you can use the music in the NCH Audio Library. To add your own music, click on the "Add Music" button in the Media tab, or click on the "Add Media" button in the top menu bar. 

Audio tracks will be added to the Media tab. To add music to your slideshow, drag and drop the audio file that you would like to use from the Media tab to the slideshow where it says "Drag your sound clips here"

To add music from the NCH Sound Library, open the "Slideshow" menu, and open the NCH Sound Effect Library.

The sound effect library includes many sound effects and music tracks that you can use in your slideshow. 

Add a Narration

To personalize your slideshow video, you may wish to add a voice-over narration. To record a narration for your slideshow, click on the "Narration" button in the top menu bar. 

Save and Share Your Video

Video slideshows can be saved in a variety of common video file formats for easy sharing with friends and family. Export your photo slideshow video as a .gif, .mov, .mp4, .flv, or .mkv file. Videos can be shared on social media, sent to family members by email, or burned to a DVD.

Download PhotoStage for Windows

New Mac Digital Photo Slideshow Software

One of our most popular programs, PhotoStage Slideshow Maker is now not only the best slideshow software for Windows but also an easy way to make slideshows with music, photos, video clips, narration and more on Mac OS X. Slideshows are a great way to keep your memories alive and creating dynamic video slideshows couldn't be easier. From Camera to DVD or posting online to share with friends and family follow the easy steps to add your media, enhance your photos and add effects for a professional touch in minutes. Download PhotoStage today to start making your own video picture slideshows and see how easy it is for yourself.

Bringing Fond Memories Back to Life

Guest post by John Albergo

My dad was an engineer and a shutterbug, which meant that our vacations were meticulously captured through the lens of his German Leica. This was both a blessing and a curse.

Up close and personal with a buffalo

First, the blessing: Our summer car trips covered the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Alberta, and Dad captured everything on film—35mm slides, to be specific. The engineer in him demanded perfection, which resulted in beautiful photos of incredible, indescribable landscapes that most people never see. Even as children, we were awestruck by the forces of nature that merged to create these scenes—Yellowstone Park, Old Faithful, Twin Falls, the Grand Tetons, Glacier Park, the Badlands, rivers, forests, plains, snow-capped mountains and, of course, wildlife.

John's brother Pat, at Badlands National Park. "Take just a few more steps back..."

Now the curse: Fast forward to 2012. I inherited more than 1,000 slides, all neatly organized into cartridges, that were taking up space in my basement. Suddenly, there was a renewed interest in slides that no one has seen in years; now everyone wanted to see them again. I had to figure out how to digitize and share them across several states. It would have taken me weeks to scan, edit and clean up all of the old slides, so I opted to have them professionally scanned. (Hint: Some photo and film digitizing services send their work overseas on container ships, which can take months, so I chose a company that does everything locally)

Rather than simply send everyone CDs with a bunch of images, I wanted to create a slide show in which they could identify what the photos were. I downloaded a trial of PhotoStage Slideshow Maker and created a show with a few scanned images; I was sold immediately. Creating and editing a slide show is simple. Once I created a slide show, altering the duration of each slide took only a few clicks, allowing me to time the music I added to the showdown to the second.

That was nice for starters, but the real test was when I got nearly 500 hi-res images back from the scanning service. I found that uploading even a high volume of images into PhotoStage is fast, and it allowed me the option of transferring everything in sub-folders that indicated where groups of photos were taken, such as "Glacier Park" and "Little Bighorn." The folders show up in the menu system of DVD players, allowing viewers to select sideshows by location or subject. Once I created and saved the show, it was just a matter of copying it to a CD or DVD.

Memories Preserved for Lifetime

Whether your family's cherished memories are sitting in boxes of photos, neatly arranged photo albums or encased in slide carousels, that's all they're doing—just sitting there. And they can fade over time or, heaven forbid, be destroyed by natural disasters. Once you digitize them, PhotoStage lets you recreate and preserve those memories and enhance them with music, titles and other effects. Everyone in my family can now view these photos as a reminder not only of our beautiful country but how truly fortunate we were to have a Dad who wanted us to see it.

John Albergo is a writer with more than 15 years of experience in business communications, spanning IT services, software licensing, health and safety programs, and general business. He's also a bit of a shutterbug and even had his own darkroom while in high school.

PhotoStage Android Slideshow App

The Android releases are continuing, now one of our long-time favorites, and the best slideshow software, PhotoStage, is now available for Android tablets. So you can make and share slideshows of your vacations before you return home. Quickly combine photos, video clips, music, record narration and more to make fun slideshows that will make everyone wish they were there too. You can download it now from the Google Play app store.

Video Review of the Best Slideshow Software: PhotoStage

You may already know that TopTenReviews has honored our PhotoStage SlideShow Software, naming it The Best Slideshow Software. Now take a look at their video review, including a look at some of the very easy-to-use features that helped make it number one.

Make A Seasonal Slideshow

There is something nostalgic about this time of year. Shopping for gifts, making holiday plans, going to parties. And between the parties, presents, and traditions—like sitting on Santa's lap, cutting a Christmas tree, decking the halls, or cooking the special family recipes that only come out once a year—there are also a lot of photos to share.

But what if this year, instead of posting hundreds of individual pictures to Facebook, you combined all your favorites into a slideshow that will warm the heart? PhotoStage Slideshow Creator, rated the best slideshow software by TopTenReviews, makes it easy to combine your memories into a truly magical movie slideshow starring none other than your family. TopTenReviews recently posted an article that runs down how to make a personalized winter slideshow with PhotoStage. With its easy-to-use interface, the most important thing is just to come to the table with your imagination, ready to play with and perfect your slideshow.

Whether you want set your photos to your favorite holiday songs, record the family caroling, or add captions or narrations, you have complete creative control to tell the story of any memorable holiday, moment or event. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a slideshow is easily worth ten thousand, and with easy sharing options, lots of transitions, and dynamic features, there is no better way to create a slideshow than with PhotoStage Slideshow Maker.

Wedding Slideshow Creation with PhotoStage

One of the the truly wonderful things about PhotoStage slideshow software is that it can be used for so many different things. We've had stories in our blog about making stop-motion videos, digital storytelling, making a music video and more. PhotoStage is ideal for preserving memories of all kinds of events, and one of the big events that more and more users are beginning to use PhotoStage for is making a wedding slideshow to share with friends, family, guests and more.

The Daily Wedding Blog recently wrote about creating wedding slideshows with PhotoStage as a digital addition to the traditional framed photo and photo album that couple keeps. Just one of the great things about putting together a slideshow is how easy they are to share, whether you post the finished slideshow to Facebook or burn them to a DVD and send them out with your thank yous. The possibilities are endless and there is no reason to limit yourself. You may only get one wedding album, but there is no reason you can't make multiple wedding slideshows, maybe one for the bridesmaids that also includes pictures from the bachelorette party and another version for the groomsmen. If you're getting married we hope you will use PhotoStage for making wedding slideshows, and for more inspiration and tips on planning a wedding without breaking the bank visit the Daily Wedding Blog.

Slideshow Software Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

As further proof that PhotoStage is the best slideshow software, we can now add a 5 star review from the editors at CNET to its accolades. We strive to make our software easy and intuitive and were thrilled to have the editors comment that "PhotoStage Slideshow Producer shows that slideshow makers don't need to be difficult to use to produce great results," and going on to say:

"We were pleasantly surprised to find that PhotoStage offers a narration feature that let us add our own music to our slideshow; you can even record your own voice, if you have a microphone. The Save step gave us numerous options for saving our newly created slideshow, including saving it as a Flash file, DVD movie, or a data disc, or we could save it to our hard drive or portable device. It took a few seconds to save, but in no time, we were able to play our newly created slideshow back. PhotoStage Slideshow Producer will appeal to users of all skill levels."

– CNET

You can read the complete review of PhotoStage Slideshow Software on download.com, or download it now to get started making your own slideshow presentations right away.

Bringing A Comic To Life With Photo Slideshow Software

Guest post by Jessica Warner "Tomoyo Ichijouji"

At the heart of everything, what I want to do the most is to bring great stories to life. I'm primarily a writer, so that usually has to do with the techniques of prose on the page, of which I'm pretty comfortable with already. But, in the past year or two, as a result of getting involved in amateur voice-acting (I'm now a moderator of the forum I participate in, VoiceActingAlliance), as a lot of voice-actors there also put together their own media to voice, I've discovered many resources that could bring a story from simple text to a full blown multimedia production. I had sound effects to mix anything from a walk in the park to an epic battle of giant robots, and voice actors with professional-grade talent who I had at hand to recruit to make characters all that more real to the audience. Even better, I even had a few composers I could collaborate with to make a totally immersive, original work you could listen to. Really, what more could you ask for?

However...I have always been a visual person. While you can do a lot with just sound alone, characters and stories don't really feel complete to me unless you can really "see" them. In writing, these come in the form of prose descriptions, whereas for multimedia, pictures are a necessity. There are people in my online community with the artistic talent, patience, time, and resources to actually make full motion animations, buuuuuut...let's just say that I lack enough of each category for that to really be feasible for me, haha.

I had a project in mind that when I first learned enough to take a crack at these productions myself, I wanted to try to bring to the screen. It wasn't my own; it was an online webcomic called No Rest for the Wicked, as of yet unpublished and unfinished, that I saw a lot of potential in to be a lot more than simply a webcomic. It was presented in a way that I could see it practically coming alive in a cinematic form in my head. The art in the webcomic was characteristically stylistic and pleasing to the eye -- couldn't there be some way to present those same images in a way that allows that cinematic nature to be evident, and to combine it with all those resources I had to make something that was barely a few steps away from being like an actual "motion picture". And so I thought, "...Why not?!"

I was remembering from photo slideshows I'd seen, how they had different panning and zooming effects along with transitions, and I thought, perhaps if I could do the same for the images from the webcomic, that would simulate the panning and zooming techniques used in actual animated features usually with a lower budget to be able to make the most out of a single image, as well as to establish action shots with fast shifts and flashes.

After all, I already had the images in front of me -- it was a matter of how to have them displayed to make them come alive. It sounded like a very interesting endeavor indeed, and really played to my general life creed of "make the most possible out of the least amount possible". That said, how would I do it?

I started to research on what programs I could use to do this. I got recommendations of the widely-used programs that could do everything under the sun -- but when I looked at the licenses for those programs, it made me bang my head on my desk. I can't afford $500+ for a program license! I could probably better use that money to upgrade my computer equipment so that I could even USE such complex programs without crashing my hard drive after an hour of working with it. I wondered, did you really need to pay that much to have a slideshow program with customizable transitions and effects? Surely there was something else that people simply hadn't bothered to look into that would serve just as well?

After some careful searching, I came across the NCH Software programs, one of which was PhotoStage Slideshow Producer. I thought, sure, sounds like what could work. Seemed pretty simple in both structure and interface (it was a tiny download, I was amazed what functions you could pack into a few megabytes), straightforward, yet flexible. Downloading the trial version, but being the skeptic I have always been about good deals (why hadn't anyone heard of it before if it was so useful?), I wondered how much I'd be able to tell from a trial program that usually only lasted long enough for me to use it once or twice at most.

However, I found that PhotoStage let me use it for well beyond its suggested trial period, even keeping ALL of its features except for some file formats that weren't crucial to the functionality of the program. I have a lot of respect therefore for programs that will in fact trust that if you find you really like the program, eventually you'll support the programmers and publishers by paying for a shiny license for it that shows that you are in fact legit without having a swimming pool of money in your backyard.

And eventually, that's exactly what happened. I was actually well into working on the project, having done several clips already that I showed my staff as I'd been well into getting in the lines and mixing all the stuff together, and finding a special on licenses going on, I thought it was the right time to get one -- and I knew already, having been able to actually DO something with it, that I was getting my money's worth.

Here's a few of the test clips I've done so far of the production so far, from various parts of the webcomic (some of the voices and music are just placeholders and will be different in the finished production):


This test clip shows a more cinematic setting-establishing scene, where the panning and zooming is put to full use. Source reference: Ch 2, pg 1-3

This test clip has more narration, but I made little illustrative panels come to life by erasing out various objects and phrases, having them fade or pop back into view depending on the context. Source reference: Ch 1, pg 1

This test clip shows the control of comedic timing between the visuals and dialogue. Source reference: Ch 1, pg 12

This test clip integrates a lot of the things above, using both panning, zooming, and fades at various speeds for a comedic, almost cartoon-like effect. Source reference: Ch 2, pg 42-43

I'm still working away on the production and it's not anywhere near finished, but I'm getting there! (See, again, why I don't like programs with ticking fuses, because my working pace in general is tortoise slow) If you're curious as to more detailed progress info, here's my production blog, and there's a few additional test clips up at my Youtube production channel, Videocaptor Productions. (Tomoyo Ichijouji is my online alias, a little more unique than my real life name, haha)

I'm not sure at this point what future projects I'll use PhotoStage for next, but I've been pointing others at my community who want to do comic dubs like mine to PhotoStage as an easy, elegant way to bring some motion to the images to go with the voices and sound. It seems like the ones who've tried it liked it, so who knows? Considering nobody else in my forum seemed to know about it before I started mentioning it to people, maybe it'll start catching on. In the end, for me, it's all about making the most of what you've got. PhotoStage was definitely one of the programs that let me do that, so I'm sure I'll continue using it for creative purposes in the future.

Stop Motion Animation with Slideshow Software

I recently stumbled across another great use for PhotoStage Slideshow Software, combining sequential still photos into a stop motion video animation. That is exactly what a class of students did in the Napa Valley in a CyberMill Technology Center summer program as reported on by Howard Yune of the Napa Valley Register.

CyberMill is a Napa Valley nonprofit technology center, affiliated with the national Computers for Youth nonprofit organization. The CFY Network is committed to improving the home learning environment of low-income families by providing home computers and educational resources, helping students learn the technology skills they need to compete and thrive in the 21st Century. In this particular summer program Yune explains that

"For nearly four hours a day over five days, children at the animation camp work through all the phases of building a short video. Digital point-and-shoot cameras snap numerous photos — as many as 465 for each short — of box-size backdrops built by the children themselves, guided by scripts based on poems of their creation or choosing.

Instructors also guide students in using Photostage software to merge the stills into short movies, adding electronic titles and recording dialogue in an audio studio set inside a walk-in closet."

– Ever wanted to make a movie about a goldfish?

We were excited to learn about this project of making stop motion animated shorts with PhotoStage and applaud the programs of the CyberMill Technology Center for bringing technology to those who might not have as much exposure to this important piece of our world today, while keeping it fun at the same time.

PhotoStage: The Best Slideshow Software

PhotoStage photo slideshow software is an excellent and easy way to take your photos and create stunning movies of your cherished memories and events. You don't have to take our word for it: TopTenReviews just awarded PhotoStage the Gold award, proclaiming it the best slideshow software. They describe PhotoStage Slideshow Producer as "intuitive and savvy photo slideshow software that enables you to assemble artistic, personalized picture slideshows with total ease," going on to say:

"PhotoStage really does an outstanding job of bridging the gap between ease of use and multifaceted functionality. The photo slideshow application delivers a well-supplied feature set that is easy to utilize, and we were able to create an entire slideshow without any difficulty. Furthermore, we loved how clean and sophisticated the user interface is; it seems more akin to a sleek graphic design tool than a basic slideshow maker. Such a seamless melding between ease of use and an advanced appearance and feature set makes the photo slideshow software a viable option for both casual and tech-savvy users."
– TopTenReviews

Read the complete review of PhotoStage slideshow software on the TopTenReviews website. Or download a copy of the software today and get started making photo slideshows right away. As TopTenReviews pointed out, the "easy drag-and-drop functionality make the software simple to use and it delivers high-definition output quality," so you won't regret having this application on hand for turning your digital photos into stunning movie slideshows to share with family and friends.

Video Tutorial: Simple Slideshow Software in Action

See how easy it is to bring your digital photos to life and share your favorite memories with family and friends with PhotoStage slideshow creation software. Our recently finished PhotoStage video tutorial walks you through the process so you can see how easy it is to combine images, video clips, music and narration into a truly memorable slideshow movie.

Download PhotoStage slideshow software today to start making your own custom multimedia presentation to share with friends and family and preserve your memories.

Holiday Photo Creativity

It’s the holiday season again, which means it’s time for family, food and photos. What should one do with the boundless amounts of photographs taken at this time of year? You should share them – and this year instead of making a resolution to send out a custom scrapbook to each family member (a goal most of us can never keep), I’m going to create a custom slideshow to send to the whole family.

It’s quick and simple with PhotoStage Slideshow Software. You can easily combine pictures with video clips and add sound or narration for a more festive slideshow. What better way to show off baby’s first Christmas than to give a play-by-play with sequence shots or add your favorite holiday tunes and videos? If you’re anything like me, you print your photos and stack them in a dusty box in some remote location, where no will actually see them – this year I’m going to make a captivating visual experience with them instead.

PhotoStage comes equipped with an array of transition effects so you can make every slideshow a unique event to be shared. You can edit your photos from right within the program, giving you complete control of the outcome.

My favorite part is being able to share my slideshows on my iPhone so I can look at them on-the-go! Making video slideshows really is worlds better than leaving holiday photos in a dusty box to never be seen again.

User Spotlight: First Time Success Making A Music Video

Bart Bryars recently purchased PhotoStage Slideshow Software and put together his first video. The opening number for their musical, Joey, is a take on everything New York City.

"It turned out so good and has had such a positive response, I thought I'd send it to you so you could see what's possible for a first time novice like me, who has no training whatsoever in video arts or production. We don't even have a camcorder. The action parts were shot on a regular Sony digital camera that happens to have a basic recording feature.

Thank you so much for your product. Very simple and easy to use."

– Bart Bryars

As we've mentioned in the past we strive to make all of our software easy to use. So it is great to not only hear that we are doing a good job, but to see the results as well. We really enjoyed watching the musical number they put together with the help of PhotoStage Slideshow Creator and wanted to share it with all of you fine readers:

We hope you enjoy their video too. Maybe it will inspire you to put together your own musical video montage after seeing what couple of beginners were able to do.

Showcase and Share Your Memories, Photos, Video Clips and More

Vividly recreate and preserve your memories with a multimedia slideshow you’ll be proud to share with friends and family with PhotoStage slideshow creator software.

There’s no better tool than PhotoStage for showcasing your favorite photographs, images and video clips. PhotoStage brings your pictures, images and video to life and lets you share your favorite memories with family and friends in an interesting and portable way. Creating a slideshow from your digital photos has never been easier.

Evolution of the Photo Album

How making a slideshow can enhance the way we preserve memories

When I was younger, I loved pulling out the photo albums my mom kept in the living room. There, in the cellophane-wrapped pages, printed on Polaroids and semi-gloss photo paper, was the evidence of our lives. I recognized the old house the pictures were taken in, and could see the resemblance of my parents’ faces in their younger form. I remembered old toys and costumes, and sometimes saw old friends. Everyone was always smiling, and it was the perfect reminder that I had grown from love. These photos made appearances at my graduations and my wedding, sometimes eliciting a round of laughter, and always reminding us of the paths leading us to that day.

As we learn to integrate our lives with a digital existence, the sensation of flipping through the sticky pages of a photo album will become a rare occurrence. But that doesn’t mean that the visceral experience will disappear; there will still be the unpredictable nature of seeing photos anew, in which memories arise and emotions are conjured up. I have realized that the pictures I take almost never make it to the pages of a photo album. They have different lives than the photos my parents took. They remain in chronological order on my camera, or stored on discs, hard drives, and SD cards. I almost never print them out.

But that doesn’t mean my photos are stowed away, rarely to be seen. If anything, there are more opportunities to share photos than ever. Between portable devices, mobile phones, online photo sites, and social media, photos have a new life. The slideshow, once a good excuse to take a nap while your uncle narrated slides of his latest motor home trip, is now a creative and highly engaging experience and is the ultimate way to share memories. Creating a slideshow today means taking advantage of technology to engage with our photos, and to reflect on our lives in ways we never have before.

With graduations coming up, and as we head into the height of the wedding season, now may be the perfect time to reminisce or put together a meaningful slideshow full of family memories. Here are a few tips for putting together your slideshow, and for amazing your friends and family:

1. Get a slideshow program. Putting together a slideshow should be intuitive, especially when dealing with hundreds of photos. Photostage slideshow creator is easy to use, it handles multiple media formats, and you'll end up with a quality slideshow worthy of any special event.
2. Gather your media. That’s right, I said media. Don’t limit yourself to digital pictures--scan in those old prints you have too. Then, look for video clips, but keep them short. Don’t worry if your videos aren’t in digital format, those can be converted if you use Golden Videos VHS to PC converter to convert home movies to digital format, and edit them down with VideoPad video editor. Don’t forget the music either. Choose music with special meaning; either songs that make you smile, or bring a tear to your eye.
3. Organize your media. Once your photos, video clips, and audio are on the slideshow timeline, move them around so you can see how they relate to each other. Group similar pictures or find themes that match the music, and use blank slides filled with text to help break up the different sections. Or, try telling a compelling story either by recording narration or inserting captions along the way.
4. Embellish. Adding transitions between the slides makes watching the slideshow easy on the eyes. Combine transitions with image effects to add visual interest to your slides. Don’t be afraid to experiment! Anything you apply can be undone, and your original media is safe and sound in its original form.
5. Save for the correct medium. How will you be displaying your slideshow? Will you be posting it online, or projecting it to a room full of graduates? Be careful that you don’t save for YouTube if you plan on watching the slideshow on a wide screen TV. The resulting images won’t have the quality you desire.
6. Share! No matter the complexity of the slideshow, the effort you put in will show through. Enjoy!